Artist challenging American values

Changing Climate
Exhibition by Ron Guy
Cusp Gallery, 238 High Street Northcote
April 4-22
Phone (03) 9482 2731

REVIEW BY VANNESSA HEARMAN

Ron Guy is an artist and a shift worker, as well as the union representative on his job. He is a passionate supporter of civil rights, Western Sahara, East Timor and Green Left Weekly. This exhibition of his works will be opened by Terry Hicks, the father of Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, and Australian Workers Union secretary Bill Shorten.

One of Guy's paintings is inspired by American Gothic, the iconic painting by Grant Wood that was celebrated as portraying US ethics, showing a farmer protecting the virtues of his daughter and the American way of life. By replacing the figures with Terry Hicks as the farmer and David Hicks beside him bound up in sensory deprivation gear, Guy calls into question the double standards of the US government when it comes to human rights. The image also graces bottles of wine from Prospect Wines as part of Green Left Weekly's "Shut Guantanamo" wine fundraiser. To purchase Green Left wine, phone the Melbourne Resistance Centre on (03) 9639 8622.

From Green Left Weekly, April 5, 2006.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 663